Thursday, January 17, 2013

Bringing Sorry Back

When FOX inadvertently broadcast a live shot of a deadly shot at the end of a car chase, Shep immediately apologized, explained how they had screwed up, took personal responsibility for it, and pledged that it “won’t happen again on my watch.”

A solid 10 on the sorry spectrum. In the apology game, Smith is your Shepard.

Lance,
on the other hand, didn’t have the … the courage to own up to years of
doping, lying, and bullying until he saw a chance to cop a plea with his
mea culpa.

Lance has one. Not two. Just one. And we’d take that one away if the scale went any lower.

The esteemed magazine The Atlantic falls somewhere in the middle of this sorry spectrum for their heart-felt—but quite late—apology
for allowing the Scientologists to slip one past the goalie. The
cruise-controlled cult posted an online ad touting their creamy
goodness, but they designed it to look like a genuine news article (in much the same way they try to make themselves look like a genuine religion).

The
Atlantic gets a 5.75 on this one. It would have been a solid eight if
they had apologized immediately instead of posting some corporate-speak
placeholder for 24 hours as they tried to get their act together.

And finally, an “Honorable Mention” to Reed Hastings and the Netflix gang for one of the most entertaining videotaped apologies in modern history. If you squint, you’d swear you were watching Joe Isuzu trying to sell you a Trooper.

You’re going to screw up someday. Trust me. When you do, take the hit
as a gift. The manner in which you accept (or don’t accept)
responsibility for your actions will define you. It will enrich your
story—for better or for worse. So do the right thing. Take
responsibility. Apologize. And promise to not do it again. Folks'll love
you for it.